Meet the musical genius behind the 'Game of Thrones' soundtrack who watches each season before anyone else

"Game of Thrones" can be an emotional show, and most fans would probably admit to shedding a tear every now and again. But I may have taken this passion a step further when listening to the "Game of Thrones" season six soundtrack on my way home from work one day.

I had just emerged from the bleak subway staircase out onto a New York City sidewalk when the vocal swell of Ramin Djawadi's "The Winds of Winter" picked up. As the orchestra and drums entered and the song grew louder, I felt tears well in my eyes. Despite the noisy city traffic around me, I was temporarily transported to the Narrow Sea, witnessing Daenerys Targaryen at the helm of her ship with an epic armada behind her. She was finally going to Westeros.

Ramin Djawadi is a 41-year-old composer making his mark on the world through one of the most popular television series of all time — "Game of Thrones." Since the show's inception, Djawadi has been the man behind every musical note heard by fans around the world. I have him to thank for my emotional response to a television show. After watching the season six finale, Tech Insider spoke with Djawadi about his work on the series.

HBO

By the time HBO and "Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss reached out to Djawadi about scoring their new show, the young composer had been making waves in Hollywood. Djawadi scored the first "Iron Man" movie in 2008, and had worked under Hans Zimmer at Remote Control Productions. He's since composed music for the blockbuster movies "Pacific Rim" and "Warcraft," and worked on CBS' "Person of Interest" and HBO's upcoming "Westworld."

"[Benioff and Weiss] showed me the first two episodes which, of course, blew my mind," Djawadi tells Tech Insider over the phone. "Then a meeting was set up and we sat down and talked about the show and concepts and it was off from there."

The pilot episode showed to Djawadi ended with Bran being pushed out of a window. HBO Even after six seasons, the process is still generally the same: Djawadi comes in after nearly all the filming is done. Episodes are sent to him in batches as they're edited together. Sometimes one episode arrives, and other times he says he has received a set of five at a time. Though special effects are often missing from the footage sent to Djawadi, he still gets to see the overall arc for the season and begin working on new theme music.

"[Benioff and Weiss] usually give me a heads up like 'for this character we need to expand the theme or we need a new theme because of what's happening later,'" Djawadi explains.

One example of this is Jon Snow's season six storyline. "I have to admit — I knew he was coming back all along," Djawadi says. "It was so hard to stay quiet when everybody asked me, but of course I always said 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'"

Helen Sloan/HBO Djawadi had to know ahead of time so he could begin thinking of a new theme for Jon in season six. Many characters, as well as their families and followers, have separate theme music. The Lannisters have the " Rains of Castamere," and Stannis and Melisandre's scenes often had the same music (it can be heard on the season six track " The Red Woman").

"When we first started meeting for season six, we decided Jon Snow will definitely have his own theme this season," Djawadi says. "For example at the Battle of the Bastards, we used Jon's theme a lot because that was so personal and it was all about him and his mistakes and thinking it was over. That was not really an overall Stark moment — it was really personal."

The music that swells during this nail-biting moment is Jon Snow's new theme. HBO "At the end of episode three, when he walks away and says 'My watch has ended,' that was a good spot too where it was just a Jon Snow moment rather than a Stark moment," Djawadi explains.

That scene was actually the first time viewers heard the new Jon Snow theme in season six. It was a signal to viewers that Jon's character had shifted — something in him was moving away from his old self. His new music sounds similar to the Stark theme, but with a heavier focus on cello and less violin.

"The Stark theme, like with ' Goodbye Brother,' is associated with a lot of goodbyes — it's a very emotional theme," Djawadi says. "But with [Jon's] theme, he's brought back to life and you can see he's wondering why and how did this all happen. Plus with the internal struggle he's facing in the battle ... it's definitely a little bit dark."

HBO Another new piece of music needed for season six was the epic finale closing song, " The Winds of Winter." The scene opens with Theon and Yara Greyjoy standing on a ship, before a sweeping camera pan reveals Daenerys Targaryen's full armada.

Fans listening closely will recognize the opening notes as the iconic House Greyjoy theme, but performed using a chorus of vocals in the style of Daenerys' theme. Though the end result was a stunning and emotionally charged piece of music, Djawadi said getting there was no piece of cake.

"The themes are made and written to stand completely on their own, but every season I try to come up with something new and to expand on the themes," he says. "I thought 'well, we have [Daenerys and the Greyjoys] together so let's just put their themes together as well and combine the power.' That was tricky to figure out, but it was a really amazing finale."

Djawadi's approach to using vocals — primarily in Daenerys' theme music — is also fascinating. He pulls syllables and words from Valyrian, a fictional "Game of Thrones" language, and organizes them into a sort of music-only dialect.

"[The lyrics are] what I call 'Valyrian-inspired,'" Djawadi explains. "I treat it like another instrument, so they're not singing actual full sentences because I didn't want it to distract the audience too much."

The result is transfixing. By listening carefully during the season six ending, viewers can hear Djawadi's blend of Greyjoy musical notes and Targaryen Valyrian vocals come through, with hints of the main title theme as well:

"I associate colors with music, or music with colors," Djawadi explains. This visualization of music was something Djawadi always experienced, and never thought twice about until his wife asked him about his writing process.

"My wife asked me questions like 'When you write, what do you think or what do you feel?'" he recalls. "I thought 'Well it's blue so it should be X or it's green so it should be Y, just like painting.' Talking it through with her made me aware of my process."

Djawadi's natural association of musical notes or melodies with color comes in handy for "Game of Thrones," given the show's tendency to indicated geographic changes with a subtle color palette.

"What's great about 'Game of Thrones' is how the different locations [change color] — like how north of the Wall has this great blue tone and Danerys in the desert has more of a yellow," Djawadi says. "So it triggers certain things for me, which is super inspiring."

Macall B. Polay/HBO Season six was home to some of the longest pieces of music Djawadi has had to create for the series. The stand out among these was "Light of the Seven," a nearly 10 minute long composition used for Cersei's deadly finale plot. The new track was so popular among fans it immediately jumped to the top of Spotify's "Global Viral 50" chart.

"What's so cool about 'Light of the Seven' — and what I love about 'Game of Thrones' — is you never know what's going to happen," Djawadi says. "You never know who's going to die, you never know who's going to turn on who."

The piano played a huge role in subverting fan expectations for Cersei's wildfire explosion. "It's always interesting to go in different directions with instrumentation, so the piano was such a surprise to people because it's just not in the language of the score at all," Djawadi explains. "We've never used piano before."

HBO Partially due to "The Light of the Seven" and "The Battle of the Bastards," season six wound up being a larger workload than usual for Djawadi. Not that he was complaining, of course.

"We've never had as much music [before] as we did this season, so I had a blast," Djawadi says. "Being able to write these longer pieces and expand on themes and write new themes was really great."

But just like fans, Djawadi dreads wrapping up every season of "Game of Thrones." Each year, he spends around four to five months composing, and then sits back to watch the show unfold on television. The final step of the process is assembling the official soundtrack released each year, often just before the season finale.

"This is the most amazing team to work with," Djawadi says. "It's an an amazingly well written show and it's such a joy to work on. I fall into a depression when the season ends."

Filming for season seven will start later than usual this year, which means both the fandom and Djawadi will have to wait longer than they're used to for new episodes. Rest assured the new footage will be paired with even more incredible music from Djawadi, so at least we all have something to look forward too.

In the meantime fans can listen to Djawadi's music from "Game of Thrones" season six on Spotify or iTunes.